The Show Must Go On
by Agent Henry
Summary: Draco's thoughts while on his way to the Astronomy Tower.


**A/N: Here's one of my new one-shot's. Check out my profile for all my new stories 'coming soon'. Read, review, enjoy! **

_**Another hero. Another mindless crime.**_  
_**Behind the curtain, in the pantomime.**_  
_**On and on**_  
_**Does anybody know**_  
_**What we are living for**_

Draco Malfoy walked through the corridors of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, his mind only focused on two things; the mission he had been ordered to do and the consequences of performing this mission. His whole life he had been following orders, he was a puppet and there had been a variety of puppeteers - his father, his aunt Bellatrix, the Dark Lord. He was an actor and his life was a show. This show had taken a bad turn; the drama and violence had started, and he didn't know how this show was going to end. What did he live for?

_**Whatever happens**_  
_**We leave it all to chance**_  
_**Another heartache**_  
_**Another failed romance**_  
_**On and on**_  
_**Does anybody know**_  
_**What we are living for**_

He got by each day as it came. It was a miracle she had put up with him at all, never mind this long. Draco now thought about her. He put her through so much pain all these years. Pain that got worse this years. No, he hadn't bullied her this year. He hadn't called her names or belittled her in any way. He had started a relationship with her. At the beginning of the year, she had been there to see him at his most weakest (at the time) and instead of telling her friends, instead of coming out with 'what goes around, comes around' she had comforted him. And had been there ever since.

He fell in love with her and she with him. And that was what caused the pain. He didn't tell her what he had to do this year. She asked, begged and pleaded with him to tell her what was wrong and her told her nothing. He didn't even bother to lie to her. He kept quiet. Until yesterday…

**~Flashback~**

_The sound of moans and screams filled the Room of Requirement. Then there was silence. Two sweat covered bodies lay next to each other on the bed the room had conjured. Their chests were rising up and down, in time with their fast breathing, but it couldn't be heard._

_Draco turned to the person next to him, "why do we do this, Granger? Are relationship, why do we do it?"_

_Hermione turned to lie on her side and put her hand on his chest, "I don't know," she answered honestly. Draco narrowed his eyes in confusion, that wasn't really answer he was expecting, "there are many reasons," she continued, "because we love each other. Because we are proving that Voldemort is wrong and we are all the same," Hermione saw and felt Draco flinch at the name. She turned back to look up at the ceiling. She knew Draco was keeping something from her and she knew she shouldn't keep asking but she couldn't stand seeing him like this and she wanted so desperately to help him. _

_She also knew why Draco came to her at random times, day or night and she knew it was part of the reason he wouldn't speak of, "for realise, a moment of freedom," she whispered. Draco shut his eyes._

"_Draco, please talk to me. What's wrong?"_

"_There's nothing to say," he answered._

_She didn't bother to look at him, "liar."_

_Draco pulled the covers off himself, "if you know I'm a liar then why did you ask?" he pulled on his boxers and pants and walked to the window. He leaned his head against it and let a tear fall._

_Hermione sat up, pulling her knees and the covers to her chest, "I just want to help you."_

"_You can't help me," he whispered._

"_Draco? Baby, you're scaring me."_

_He turned around to face her and she saw what she had suspected, what she had hoped wasn't true; his tears, "I'm scaring you? I haven't said anything yet." His voice never became more than a whisper. That was it. Draco saying yet was how Hermione knew he was finally going to tell her._

"_During the summer I found out, through a memory, how my father became a Death Eater," Hermione knew Lucius was working for Voldemort, she had seen him in the Department of Mysteries last year. But she thought Draco knew the reason. Was there a different reason to what she had concluded?_

_Draco noticed her confusion, "I thought the same as you; that my Father joined because he believed in that. Until my mother secretly gave me the memory. Father believed that we were better than muggles and Muggleborn but he didn't believe in killing them. He chose to just stay away from them. Three times V-Voldemort," he forced himself to say the name, "came to my dad wanting him to join, saying a Malfoy on his side would help. Twice my dad said no. The third time was six months after I was born, my dad came home and the entire Manor was silent, there was no sound from my mother, from me, not even from the house elves. My father thought it was odd and looked for us. He found my mother and I in my nursery, Death Eaters were there and Voldemort. He asked my dad again and told him to think of his family, he told my father to imagine a world were my mother and I were gone. He didn't say it, but there's no mistaking what he was implying."_

_Hermione nodded slowly, "Lucius had to join or Voldemort would kill you and your mother. Well, I hate him a little less and respect him a little more, but what has it got to do with why you're like this?" Hermione asked; always blunt and to the point._

_Draco took a deep breath, "don't hate me. Please don't hate me." he was whispering again._

_Hermione shook her head, "never."_

"_You say that now," Draco told her, "also during the summer I got summoned by Him and was told I had to join him and my father, he said I had a mission I had to complete." _

_Hermione stood up, "no. No!" Draco just looked at her. She looked at his left arm. There was nothing there, "no," she whispered over and over. She took her wand and grabbed his arm, he didn't stop her. Hermione muttered a spell under her breath and the Dark Mark revealed itself. She dropped his arm and moved back._

"_I didn't want it, Hermione, I didn't. I don't." she heard what he was saying and could hear how much he meant those words but she couldn't stop looking at his arm. All this time, this had been what he was hiding, this thing on his arm. No wonder he didn't want her to know. Could she get past that?_

_She forced herself to look up, she wanted him to finish the story, "what is the mission he wants you to complete?"_

"_He never expected me to do it. He wants me to die trying."_

"_what is it?"_

"_I had to fix the vanishing cabinet in the RoR," he pointed to were they were now, "to form a passage for the Death Eaters to come to the school."_

_Hermione didn't understand how he could die doing that, unless it couldn't be done and death was a punishment, "did you do it?"_

_Draco nodded, "they're coming tomorrow. You have to get people prepared, don't tell them where or how you got the information, just tell them. Have students evacuated, teachers ready. I'd tell you to run and leave but you won't listen."_

"_You know me well," now she was confused. How could he not do that? She asked him._

"_Task two is the one he wants me to fail. Task two is the one I can't do," Draco answered._

"_And that is?"_

"_I can't…I can't k…," Draco choked on his words and shut his eyes so he could actually tell her, "I can't kill Dumbledore!"_

"_He wants you to kill Dumbledore?" Draco nodded his head slowly, his eyes still closed. All the pieces in Hermione's head of what had happened during the year fit. The necklace and the mead, all supposed to be for Dumbledore. Harry had been right, "you hurt Katie and Ron."_

_Draco opened his eyes, "I didn't mean to. Katie wasn't supposed to open it and Weasley wasn't meant to be given the drink. I don't want to hurt the person I'm meant to, why would I want to hurt them?" Hermione didn't speak; what could she say? "You hate me, don't you?"_

_Hermione looked at him, as if an inspection. He was still the same Draco she knew. The person who could laugh and cry and make her feel like no one else could. The only thing that had changed was the responsibility that no sixteen year old should have. A responsibility he didn't want and she believed that. He was forced into it from a young age and had to do and see things he shouldn't for a course. His was just the wrong cause. He was like Harry only for the dark. Did Hermione hate him?, "no."_

_Draco looked up and gave a soft smile. Hermione pulled him close and wrapped her arms around his neck squeezing him to her. And he welcomed it._

**~End~**

**_The show must go on_**  
**_The show must go on_**  
**_Outside the dawn is breaking_**  
**_On the stage that holds_**  
**_Our final destiny_**  
**_The show must go on_**  
**_The show must go on_**

For the rest of that night and for the afternoon they had spent together before, Hermione tried to convince Draco to tell Dumbledore and join the light. "Dumbledore will protect you," she kept saying. But Draco couldn't, he had to think of his family. And her.

"What if they found out about you?" he had asked, "They would come looking for you as my punishment. That's what they do Hermione, they punish you by taking the things you have to live for. I'd welcome death a thousand times over to keep you safe. I can't lose you." Hermione had told him it was her life and if she could take that chance for Harry, she could take it for him. But he didn't want her to and wouldn't take it. This afternoon, Draco realised him and Harry Potter had more in common than they thought.

He walked through the doors to the Room of Requirement.

xXx

_**Inside my heart is breaking**_  
_**My makeup may be flaking**_  
_**But my smile still stays on**_

Hermione was sat on the couch by the fire. Harry wasn't back yet and the Death Eaters weren't here. She had done as Draco had said, she had told the teachers about the Death Eaters, she had the younger students evacuated, Aurors had been called. All they had to do was wait. Soon Hermione would join them but for now she just needed to sit here alone and think. She was scared for Draco, more so then she was for Harry. Harry would go to Voldemort when the time was right to fight. Draco had to live with it. She knew she hadn't hidden her tears well enough, her friends had noticed, she was thankful they never asked about it. But even though they knew she was upset and she knew she wasn't hiding it, she still smiled and waved and pretended it was alright.

Up until now.

She left the common room. Hermione had one more place to go before the fight started.

xXx

_**The show must go on**_

The cabinet was open and the Death Eaters were out. Draco didn't bother to stay with them. He needed to go alone. He needed to be alone with his thoughts one last time. His thoughts of whether or not he should do as Hermione wants. Should he ask for help and join? It would go against everything he was taught as a pureblood, a Death Eater and a Malfoy. But for Hermione Granger, it would be worth it. He was already going against everything just by being with her, by loving her. One more wouldn't hurt him. But it may hurt his family.

_**The show must go on**_

**_I'll top the bill_**  
**_I'll earn the kill_**  
**_I have to find the will to carry_**  
**_On with the_**  
**_On with the_**  
**_On with the show_**

Hermione walked silently to the Astronomy Tower. Her plan was to wait around the corner. She couldn't go to Draco, she couldn't help him. But she could see him, even if it was from a distance. It could be the last time she saw him for a while. It could be the last time she ever saw him. She needed to see Draco.

Then, when Draco was no longer in sight, when he went through those doors to perform the dreadful task, she would leave. Hermione would join her teachers, her classmates, her friends, and she would fight. That was how it had to be.__

**_On with the SHOW!_**  
**_On with the SHOW!_**

Draco stopped outside the door that would lead to the tower, leant against it and closed his eyes. He imagined Hermione; how she felt, smelt, tasted. He imagined the love she showed him, though he didn't deserve it. Draco imagined her and smiled.

**_The show must_**  
**_The show must go on_**

Hermione watched Draco as he stood against that door. She saw his eyes close and his smile. Hermione wondered what he was thinking.

Then he walked through the door. Hermione stayed there longer than she wanted to, longer than necessary, she had to go to the Great Hall. Then she saw them. Death Eaters, led by Bellatrix Lestrange, going in the direction of the tower. Going to Draco. As soon as they walked through the door, she left. The fight was about to start.

The show must go on.

**A/N: So? Please review! ****Hasta Luego!**


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